A violent criminal who stabbed a man to death as “punishment” for grabbing a teenage girl’s breasts was jailed for life yesterday.

Stephen Sleaford, 39, boasted to the frightened girl “we’ve dealt with it” after knifing drunk flower packer Janusz Smoderek, 48, five times in the chest.

Sleaford, who denied murder, said that he only disarmed Smoderek after hearing the 18-year-old girl’s screams as she walked home alone.

But Lincoln court heard Sleaford, wanted to play the hero and used a lock knife to repeatedly stab Smoderek.

Judge Michael Heath said the girl had been “rescued and was in no danger” when Sleaford, carried out the attack in Boston, Lincolnshire.

He said: “This was a brutal stabbing and there was an element of punishment.”

After the attack, Sleaford went on the run for 11 days, travelling to Newcastle and then back to Lincolnshire before eventually being arrested at a former girlfriend’s address in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Sleaford had ­previously been jailed for 11 years for GBH in 1994 for shooting a man with a shotgun.

He will serve a minimum of 23 years.

Killed: Janusz Smoderek

After the court case, Det Supt Stuart Morrison said, “This was a vicious and cowardly attack on an unarmed man.

"Irrespective of the circumstances in which Sleaford intervened that night, the level of violence used on Mr Smoderek was utterly disproportionate and resulted in a family losing a husband, father and grandfather.

"When people carry knives, there is always the potential for a tragedy to occur, and in this case, the knife was in the possession of a man with a history of violence who thought nothing of taking a man’s life”.

Mr Smoderek's wife, Iwona, and daughters, Joanna, Agniszka and Malgorzata, said in a statement:

"Janusz was a loving person who was loved by everyone and who did not deserve what happened to him.

"We are grateful that his murderer has been found guilty and that the justice system has not let us down.

"We would like to thank the police for their thorough investigation and for all the support received throughout the whole ordeal.

"We are disappointed that some of the press reporting during the trial lost sight of the fact that Janusz was the victim and that we, as a family, were grieving.

"We will always remember him as a wonderful husband, father and grandad and he will always live in our hearts".